Mexico and New Mexico work together to boost reintroduction program

[large thumbnail url=”mexico-and-new-mexico-work-together-to-boost-reintroduction-program” filename=”news” year=”2010″ month=”12″ day=”30″] [thumbnail icon url=”mexico-and-new-mexico-work-together-to-boost-reintroduction-program” filename=”news” year=”2010″ month=”12″ day=”30″] KRQE-TV and the Carlsbad Current-Argus are reporting that the Living Desert Zoo has flown a Mexican gray wolf to Mexico in hopes of successfully breeding pups to help the embattled reintroduction program.

According to the KRQE Web site, the male wolf was flown to a facility in Mexico which is home to a Mexican gray female in order to try and increase the critically endangered species’ population.

The news was of course met with anger from New Mexico ranchers who claim the 40 or so animals in the wild are responsible for killing off their livestock and present a danger to humans.

The Mexican gray wolf reintroduction has been, to this point, relatively unsuccessful in comparison to the northern Rockies program. With numbers measured in dozens, the wolves have been the target of a relatively well organized anti-wolf movement. Two collared alpha males were executed in the last year in what can only be described as suspiciously effective poaching.

It’s unclear if ranchers or others used the collar telemetry to track down and kill those wolves.